Monthly Archives: August 2006

Race History: Calendar Date by WAVA percentage

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One of the things I love about running is that I get to record my progress and make graphs! I was inspired by this blog to create an graph of my age graded race results. I believe that age grading is meant to be used to compare results of runners of different ages but I like to use it to compare results across distances.

I used this calculator to convert all of my race times into WAVA percentages and then plotted them by calendar time. There’s a nice upward progression. The “2006 Half Goal” corresponds to my goal of running 1:59:59 at the Seattle half marathon at the end of November. Compared to my most recent two race results it’s a bit lower on the WAVA percentage. This may mean it’s a somewhat conservative goal but that’s fine by me.

Race History: Calendar Date by WAVA Percentage

Race Report: Shoreline Rotary 5K

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This morning I ran the Celebrate Shoreline Rotary Run 5K. This is a small community 5K/10K run – I didn’t see any bib numbers in the 300′s. For those of you not familiar with Seattle geography, Shoreline is a sort of bedroom community just north of Seattle. I often play ultimate games on various fields in Shoreline.

The race was a mass start with the 10K runners lined up just in front of the 5K runners. The 5K route was the first half of the 10K route. I started near the front of the 5K runners and spent the first half kilometer passing the slower 10K runners. I say slower but they were still moving quickly especially considering they were going to run twice as far as I was. I loved that since the field was so small there were really no bunching issues like at the start of larger races. The course was marked by kilometers and miles. Because my goal was to run under 25 minutes I decided to pace myself by the kilometer markers. All I had to do was 5 sub 5 minute kilometers to make my goal. Plus the kilometer markers come faster than the miles so you get more feedback en route.

My splits were 4:41.49 / 4:44.00 / 4:50.64 / 4:44.28 / 4:55.08. If you add that all up my time was 23:56! Yippee!

That makes my average pace 7:42 min/mile or 4:47 min/km. I am thrilled with my result. It’s a full minute faster than my goal and I took 3 minutes and 39 seconds off my PB from last February. I guess all the miles and the speedwork and tempo runs are paying off.

5K training – Week 3 – 500 miles

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14/08 0 miles Rest day, evening ultimate game
15/08 3 miles Slow & easy, emphasis on slow
16/08 5 miles Speedwork incl 3x800m at 3:29/3:35/3:37
(exact same splits as 2 weeks ago, freaky!)
17/08 0 miles Rest day, evening ultimate game (the fake taper)
18/08 0 miles Rest day (the real taper)
19/08 5 km RACE DAY – 23:56 (PB)
20/08 3 miles Slow & easy, recover run
Total 14 miles YTD: 509 miles

[16/08] This morning, halfway through my second 800m sprint I hit the year-to-date 500 mile mark. Woo hoo. I repeat, woo hoo. Just for some perspective, the total length of the 401 in Ontario is 506 miles (815 km). So basically this year I’ve run from Windsor to the Quebec border. That’s a long way!

Even with half marathon training this fall there’s no way I’m going to hit 1000 miles this year but I expect to hit 1000 km (621 miles) around the end of October.

[18/08] Tomorrow is race day. I didn’t run yesterday (although I did play an ultimate game) or today because I want to be well rested for the race. I’ve been hydrating all day and I’m hoping the brownies I had for dessert count as carbo loading. My primary goal is to run the 5K in under 25 minutes. If that doesn’t pan out then I’m aiming for sub 27 minutes since that was one of my New Year’s goals. If I have a bad day and neither of those seem attainable than I’m just going to relax and try to have fun. I think it’s going to be a blast.

5K training – Week 2 – Target Paces

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07/08 0 miles Rest day, IMA softball game, IMA ultimate game
08/08 3 miles Slow & easy
09/08 5 miles Tempo run, 3 miles @ 8:22 pace, legs felt a little heavy
10/08 0 miles Rest day, evening ultimate game
11/08 3 miles Slow & easy, feeling a little under the weather (sore throat)
12/08 0 miles Rest day
13/08 7 miles Long run @ 9:52 miles/min, felt great
Total 18 miles YTD: 495 miles

[13/08] Well I survived the week: conference, work, softball, ultimate, running and all. I feel pretty good about the paces I did for both my tempo run (8:22 mile/min) and my long run (9:52 mile/min) this week. They’re both just under the paces recommended when you put my 8K time into the Runner’s World Training Pace Calculator:

Your easy run training pace is: 10:08 min/mile

Your tempo run training pace is: 8:28 min/mile

Your maximum oxygen training pace is: 7:38 min/mile

Your speed form training pace is: 7:04 min/mile

Your long run training pace is: 10:08-11:25 min/mile

Your Yasso 800s training pace is: 3:55 min/800

I don’t necessairly need target paces for all my runs but I do like having them for speedwork and tempo runs. It’s also good to know that I could be doing my long runs at a slower pace.

This upcoming week could be pretty exciting. Depending on how I organize my week I will break the year-to-date 500 mile mark on either Tuesday or Wednesday. Plus on Saturday I’m running the 5K race and I can almost taste a sub 25 minute finish!

5K training – Week 1 – Hot, but not East Coast Hot

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31/07 0 miles Birthday rest day, IMA softball game
01/08 3 miles Slow & easy, evening ultimate game
02/08 0 miles Rest day
03/08 5 miles Speedwork incl 3x800m at 3:29/3:35/3:37
04/08 0 miles Rest day
05/08 7 miles Avg 9:32 mile/min, felt more like a “tempo run” than a “long run”
06/08 3 miles Recovery jog, slow & easy
Total 18 miles YTD: 477 miles

This was a pretty good week even though Saturday’s “long run” didn’t go quite as planned. My goal pace was 10:10 min/mile. Up until now my long runs have been done around 11:00 min/mile so I had in my head that I had to run faster than I normally would have. I sort of over shot (or under shot??) the pace and ended up running at an average of 9:32 min/mile. I waited until mid-morning to run so it was warmer than I’m used to. It wasn’t “East Coast Hot” but the sun was out in full force so between the pace and heat I was toast when I got home. Fortunately CBC was showing the Edmonthon World Cup Triathalon so I watched that while I stretched, hydrated and ate to recover. Then I took a nap!

5K training – Three weeks to a PB?

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After my huge success in the 8K (have you heard? 40:53) I have decided to run a 5K in three weeks in an attempt to set a new 5K PB. I’m pretty sure that if I have a good race I can destroy my current PB of 27:35. I ran a 8:13 pace for the 8K and if all I did was that pace again I’d do 5K in 25:31. If I take just 10 seconds off that pace I’ll finish the 5K in 25:00. So my goal is to finish in under 25 minutes. According to the Runner’s World Race Time Calculator I should be able to finish in 24:50. Of course the same calculator says I should be able to run a sub 4 hour marathon so I’m not sure if I believe it or not!